A LowCountry Tale

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

One of my favorite foods is shrimp, for many reasons: I live 100 yards from where you catch them, they’re delicious, my dad would physically hurt me if I didn’t, and the most important reason of all…

I got attacked by a shrimp one time

Yup. I remember it so vividly. I was about 9 years old and was taking a tour of a shrimp boat in Beaufort with some family and friends. We were out in the river, the nets were pulled up, and the shrimp was tossed on the table. I had a front row view of the table with my head just peering over it.

Then all of a sudden, with all the shrimp popping up and down, one lively one jumped extra high hitting me directly between my eyes and then back into the ocean. The shrimp used me to escape. So now, I eat all the shrimp placed in front of me in hopes that I will someday get revenge.

I think my favorite shrimp dish (and there are many - watch this video from my favorite movie, Forest Gump, that names a few) is the lovely shrimp burger.

I was able to enjoy one back home last weekend at The Shrimp Shack (the best place to get and the shrimp are from right across the street). Basically, all a shrimp burger is is shrimp beaten down and then formed into patties. Then they are usually fried, but on a bun with some tarter sauce and served. Delicious. There is nothing much better than that, I promise.

Here is a picture in case you can’t imagine the goodness I’m describing:

My "book" continued...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

I’ve previously blogged about the “book” I want to write at some point in my life. (I put book in quotations because it’s really not a book but rather just a compilation of ridiculous things).

Read here to catch up on what the book will be about and the first few stories that will go in it. This book won’t be anything close to what this guy will one day release, but funny nonetheless. Here are some brief descriptions of new stories that will definitely make it in the book:

• Being on a plane ride for 8 hours and standing in the customs line for 30 minutes right next to rapper Flo Rida. Didn’t get a picture, autograph, or anything. I’m not sure if he even made it into England- he was asked to step aside for extra questioning.
• Losing my camera in a field when the boys holding it, dropped it to start running from a bull that started running towards them. Why were they so close to a bull you ask? Scavenger Hunt. It was dark and we thought it was a horse.
• Jennifer and I got interviewed in front of BBC in London.
• Playing the cowbell (a big dream of mine) with the Winthrop Pep Band at a basketball game!
• My restaurant experience in Chinatown in NY. First of all, there was a line of about 20 people waiting on a table and when we went to put our name on the list, they just took us right back to a table ahead of everyone else. And we couldn’t understand our waiter one bit. Overall, it was sketchy and a true Chinatown experience. And really yummy.
• Having a car that doesn’t turn off. Read more here.
• Getting pulled into a funeral procession/parade/street dance by an older man in New Orleans. It was fun dancing with a random guy in the middle of the street with a band that walks right behind you.
• Spending 6 hours, yes 6 hours, in a Wal-Mart in Georgia where we got stranded on the way back from a youth trip.

I’m sure there are TONS more, but these are what I came up with for now. Please comment and let me know if you think of any others. And I’m still looking for a book title.

I Hate Cars

Saturday, April 4, 2009

A quick break from London here.

I never had any car problems while I was in high school or at home. But now that I have moved over 300-miles away, away from my dad who deals with car issues for me, I’ve had several.

Most recently, yesterday, I dealt with a very unique problem:

My car would not turn off.

Yup. I put it in park, went to turn the key to turn the ignition off only to find it stuck and not willing to turn or turn off. What does one do in this situation you may ask. After a few seconds and the realization that car dealerships and shops were closed, I considered my options:
• Let the car run out of gas and eventually turn off
• Rip the key out by sheer force (not from my wimpy self of course, but instead my friend who plays basketball for WU)
• Freak out, cry, call AAA and find another solution

I chose the third option. However, upon calling AAA they told me they could not immediately help me because my car was still in service. Exactly.

So instead, myself and 3 other girls had to pop the hood (which took a quite a few minutes) and be talked through via phone on where to find the black box that held the fuses, pick the correct fuse out of like 20, and pull it out. I now wish I would have taken a picture of all of us crowded around scared to pull it out in fear that we may get shocked or catch something on fire.

After several minutes we pulled the fuse and off it went! We were pretty proud of this great accomplishment.

So then I had to intentionally lock my key in the car (which was still in the ignition) and get AAA to tow it to the Saturn dealership the next day to fix it.

I got the car back today and it’s fixed! Woohoo! But while watching my little Saturn get pulled up on that tow truck, I told Jennifer I just wished we had trains, busses and subways that took us everywhere like in England. Then problems like these would not happen. But then she promptly reminded me that instead we would have the problem of people jumping on Subway tracks at our stop causing us to ride all over the city of London to get home. I don’t know which is worse.